{"id":944,"date":"2017-03-23T10:32:22","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T15:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=944"},"modified":"2017-04-20T10:40:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T15:40:34","slug":"have-you-stiffened-your-neck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=944","title":{"rendered":"Have You Stiffened Your Neck?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the Third Week in Lent<\/span><\/h3>\n

Jer 7: 23-28; Lk 11: 14-23<\/span><\/h3>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/span><\/h3>\n

“<\/span>They have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Such are the prophet\u2019s words from the Lord to the Israelis.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>For generation after generation after they had been delivered from slavery to the Egyptians, the Israelis became complacent with their prosperity and freedom. They were so complacent that when the prophets told them that they were drifting away from the Lord by ignoring the law that Moses had handed onto them, <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>they \u201cstiffened their necks\u201d, meaning they just kept going right along in<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>their former path oblivious to the words of the prophets.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Why? Because the prophets told them what they didn\u2019t want to hear.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The prophets kept telling them that things had to change- they had to repent and follow the Lord\u2019s law.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what the Pharisees and Scribes did in the face of miracles that Jesus worked.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>These religious leaders were the standard that others were supposed to seek- the good guys.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But Jesus kept telling them that they needed to change- they needed to live the law with their hearts.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The suggestion that they were less than perfect in their religious observance was threatening to them.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Because Jesus message was so repugnant to them, they sought desperately to discredit him by claiming his works were actually from the devil.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And Jesus called them on it. Only rather than get into an argument by quoting scripture to these scriptural experts, Jesus uses plain, simple, everyday logic on them; logic that the crowd of observers could easily relate to.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

How absurd were their claims that casting a devil out of a man be seen as the work of another devil.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, a house divided against itself does not stand.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And finally, he uses the argument \u201cyou are either for me or against me\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The lesson for us today is very simple.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It is so easy to get into the rut of complacency in our spiritual lives.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We desperately want to feel that we are on the right track.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And so, we really don\u2019t want to hear about having to change our lives.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We want to just keep doing what we are doing, just like the Pharisees did.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And as long as our righteousness looks better than what we see other people doing, we tend to become complacent with our current situation.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>In a sense, we \u201cstiffen our necks\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s why these scriptures were applied to Lent. because Lent is that time of year when we are challenged by the Lord to become better people.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, better than we are even if we think everything is OK.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

In the other gospels, the man Jesus cured today was not only possessed by a demon, but he was blind and deaf as well.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>When we are in a rut in our spiritual lives, we are blind and deaf to God\u2019s message.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>You know what?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

God\u2019s message on how we can serve him better is all around us.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>All we have to do is listen to it.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>For example, our country is filled with those who hunger and thirst, they come for help at St. Vincent de Paul and other places.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Our country is full of people who hurt- they are in hospitals and rest homes and jails; and there are many who are taken advantage of- human trafficking is a real problem right here in Orlando.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But the more entrenched we become in our daily lives, the more we \u201cstiffen our necks\u201d at the suggestion that we have to change.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Next week, the parish conducts a mission- right in the middle of Lent.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a great opportunity to stop and listen and take to heart the lesson of the Old Testament that we are continually being called to conversion of heart; we are continually being called to become better.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

After all, we are either for Christ, or we are against him.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the Third Week in Lent Jer 7: 23-28; Lk 11: 14-23 Dc. Larry Brockman “They have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers\u201d.\u00a0 Such are the prophet\u2019s words from the Lord to the Israelis.\u00a0 For generation after generation after they had been delivered from slavery to the Egyptians, the Israelis became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[466,465],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":945,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions\/945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}